It looks improvisational, but he planned this run for years, making a pipe dream look like a prophecy. "I’m going to get in and all the polls are going to go crazy," Trump told supporters in 2013. "I’m going to suck all the oxygen out of the room. I know how to work the media in a way that they will never take the lights off of me."

This exercise in nostalgia, always meant to propel a third Bush candidacy, is instead laying bare how a family held in such high esteem by generations of Republicans no longer represents the party it once led.

Inside a sleek Denver condominium, George W. Bush let a hundred donors to his brother’s campaign in on a secret. Of all the rival Republican candidates, one gets under his skin: his former employee, Ted Cruz.

For many who had come to see the prized heifers or the famed Butter Cow, the spectacle of Trump was the bigger thrill. In the same world in which candy bars are deep-fried, this billionaire Manhattan businessman is suddenly viewed as a blue-collar champion.

PERSONAL BIO

Work

Hard

Prolific writer.

Political junkie.

Passionate person.

I love what I do—developing relationships, seeking out the details, working several stories simultaneously and delivering them quickly and creatively via multiple formats.

From the beginning of his run in the Denver market, he's been seen as among the smartest, sharpest, most dogged investigators working political terrain — and he does't give a free pass to anyone, no matter their ideology or party affiliation. - Westword

A potential ballot measure aiming to let cities ban oil and gas drilling financed by a Democrat threatens to jeopardize the reelection hopes of Colorado's top two Democrats and could even splinter the state's progressive machine after a decade of dominance.

How a brash Second Amendment crusader has gunned down the Colorado GOP

5280 Magazine, August 2013

When Colorado Democrats passed gun control laws in May, they did it thanks to majorities Dudley Brown, by taking out more moderate, electable GOP contenders in primaries, helped create. But that irony isn't so cruel to Brown after all: the battle itself saw his membership quadruple and, suddenly, the donations are streaming in faster than he can count it.

When Denver launched non-stop service to Tokyo, Japan, a huge delegation embarked on the inaugural flight -- including nine members of the Montbello H.S. drum line. This is the story of their eye-opening journey, the kind of long-form, community-focused storytelling that's so rare in local television news.

REELS

Reporting & Anchoring 2013-14

Since it launched in June 2014, #COpolitics: From The Source has engaged policymakers, politicians and activists in lively discussions and interviews every Sunday morning on FOX31 Denver. Here's a three-minute sampling of highlights from our first three months of shows, filmed on location every week at The Source.

This reel showcases Eli's coverage of Colorado's historic recall elections, in-depth reports and interviews on issues from health care reform and energy development to the death penalty; it also includes a piece of 'Destination: Japan', a 30-minute documentary-style report following members of the Montbello High School Drum Line on a historic trip to Japan.

ELECTION 2012 REEL

During the 2012 campaign, Eli Stokols was the only Colorado reporter to go one-on-one with President Obama, Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan.